Today I will be discussing my reflection upon the sails for science program in New Zealand on behalf of
'bay of islands college'.
We were extremely lucky to be able to engage in the welfare community driven course about our
marina, ecosystem, and culture life . I admire the work they do for Aotearoa's waters so I was happy
to engross myself in it. They keep her teaming with ocean life and Tangaroa's children thriving as they
have for thousands of years. I appreciate the work they are up to and so I would like to discuss
various topics that we were engaged in. At the coastal areas we went to we had learned about
phytoplankton and zooplankton. Phytoplankton are microscopic plants that dwell in watery environments
(Both in fresh water and sea water environments) cyanobacteria, silica-encased diatoms, dinoflagellates,
green algae, and chalk-coated coccolithophores. Zooplankton are from microscopic organisms that are
bacteria, or small creatures. We learnt about these things in Opito bay where we had experienced different
things to open our minds towards them. Afterward, we were taught about local sea mammals.
Primary dolphins and whales as they were prominent in that bay area.
They had taught us about varying whale species. One thing I had learnt was that sperm whales had teeth
while other species hate plates or bristles that are used to eat much smaller creatures. We had to match
the dorsal fins of local dolphin photos to determine which were individuals. Each dolphin has a signature fin
that can be told apart from one another; like a finger print on a person. He also had whale bones that
belonged to different species of dolphins. Next we had to choose a specific rock pool to allocate / investigate
/ catalog the species we had seen in a rock pool hand guide of sorts into a logbook entry. During this excursion
I admit to possibly grabbing a large crab out of its crack and throwing it into the ocean. Lastly we energetically
ended our excursion with a Haka powhiri before heading back.
